Tom Krasovic: Padres' pursuit of Roki Sasaki continues amid Seidler family dispute

Tom Krasovic, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jan 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — A.J. Preller’s most important pursuit of this offseason became more difficult Monday, when a dispute among Padres shareholders over control of the team went public via a 97-page legal complaint filed by Sheel Seidler against two brothers of her late husband, Peter Seidler.

This month, Preller is attempting to persuade Japanese ace Roki Sasaki and his legal team to commit to the Padres for the next six seasons.

Sasaki’s decision is due by Jan. 23, when the posting window closes with Sasaki’s club in Japan.

Barring a quick resolution to the Padres’ messy and complicated dispute, Sasaki, 23, may have to decide if the Padres are the right long-term employer for him without knowing who will be approved by Major League Baseball as the franchise’s control person.

The pitcher’s legal team will have to consider the possibility that, sometime after Sasaki makes a six-year commitment, the Padres could potentially be sold as a result of the legal dispute.

There’s more. The legal disagreement among Padres shareholders could also add heft to standard questions about any smaller market club’s ability to maintain a confidence-inducing payroll over several years.

Meantime, Sasaki can choose among several other MLB clubs whose shareholders aren’t embroiled in a legal fight. Among the numerous teams known to be vying for the pitcher’s services are the Dodgers, Giants, Rangers and Mets. Presumably, each of those big-market teams can demonstrate a long-term ability to maintain a top-tier payroll.

Sasaki is the most important offseason target for Preller, the team’s president of baseball operations. There are three reasons why.

Foremost, Sasaki could become the sport’s best pitcher, per MLB scouts and team executives. Two, because of the international rules applying to his free agency, every MLB team can afford him across the six years. He’ll be paid far less than MLB’s established frontline pitchers command in free agency.

Lastly, he’ll boost team revenues by facilitating lucrative deals with businesses not only in the United States but in Japan, where the viewing audience of native son Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s World Series start with the Dodgers last October exceeded the U.S. audience for the same game.

Sasaski’s dominance in the World Baseball Classic and Japan’s top league put him on the Padres’ radar long ago.

In fact, Peter Seidler was among the Padres leaders who took a strong interest in Sasaki, a 6-foot-4 right-hander whose high-speed fastballs appear to hop over bats.

While speaking at Seidler’s Celebration of Life at Petco Park in March, five months after the team chairman’s death at age 63, Preller mentioned Sasaki in addition to a fast-rising Padres catching prospect out of Venezuela.

“He especially loved to talk about the future,” Preller said of Seidler, “hearing about players like Ethan Salas and guys down the road like a Roki Sasaki, and he got really jazzed up thinking about the pursuit of other excellent players to add to the Padre family.”

In their pitch to Sasaki, if they indeed will make one beyond the first meeting they had with the pitcher, the Padres can point to several franchise strengths that may be sustainable no matter how the ownership dispute plays out.

These include home attendance that in most years far exceeds that of most smaller-market teams; the long-term production expected from young Padres stars Fernando Tatis Jr., 26, and Jackson Merrill, 21; the successful pitching culture effected under coach Ruben Niebla, who signed a contract extension in November; and the ability of Preller and staff to draft or sign teenage amateurs who become extremely valuable.

Instability atop the franchise could complicate other potential moves.

If Preller were to attempt to trade the massive contract of middle infielder Xander Bogaerts, 32, to facilitate an attempt to bring back free-agent middle infielder Ha-Seong Kim, for example, potential trade partners might view the ownership turmoil as a reason to demand a higher price.

Sheel Seidler’s lawsuit makes a lengthy case for why she should become the team’s control owner. Last month, the club announced John Seidler, the oldest of Peter’s nine siblings, as the team’s control person. His appointment still requires MLB approval. The lawsuit accuses two of Peter Seidler’s other brothers, Matt Seidler and Robert Seidler, of “fiduciary breaches of trust” and fraud in their handling of Seidler Trusts, which control the Padres. In response, Seidler Trusts called Sheel Seidler’s complaint “entirely without merit.”

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